A very good day

Vishnu stitching


Susan working hard on the school banner


Susan teaching Manju how to stitch


Susan and Vishnu


Midhun, my star pupil


Ambadi, a cheeky monkey but very keen


Viji (one of the teachers) blowing up a balloon Indian style


Joicy with her pink balloon


And again, just before it popped


Jerin, who can't decide between ballooning and cricket


On the 'pitch' in the school grounds


Sharon, a volunteer from Canada, tries her hand at badminton


Recovering from cricket with the boys


Having a cuddle with the school pudja

It’s been a good day today (Tuesday). In spite of the heat, I slept well and woke feeling refreshed. No session this morning at the college, so I enjoyed a leisurely start to the day (huge bowl of fresh fruit salad and a chapter of An Indian Odyssey), followed by a walk down my favourite route.

The jackfruit are huge now on the trees, hanging down from the branches in monstrous clusters of vivid green. Although (or perhaps, because) it grows everywhere, you can’t buy it from the fruit stalls, so I’m relying on somebody to bring me a piece from their gardens. Not holding my breath though, as I’m still waiting for the elusive papaya, two months after my first request.

Spent the morning at the internet café sorting out legal forms (to do with my vile previous tenant at the flats) and replying to emails. It made a pleasant change not to be in a mad rush.

Then a short walk to Jyothis, where the kids and I are working on our end of term project: a cloth banner for the school. We’re stitching large coloured letters on to a bright turquoise back cloth to spell out the name of the school. Above and below the word JYOTHIS will be WELCOME in English and Malayalam.

I’m involving as many of the kids as possible in the stitching, so that they can all feel they’ve done a little bit and that it belongs to them. One or two are showing some promise, so I’m keeping a note of their names as it might be something their teachers could pursue with them.

Stitching and tailoring are big business here, what with all the embroidered sarees and the fact that most people have their clothes tailored for them rather than buying them ‘off the peg’. It would be fantastic if any of the children could learn to stitch to a high enough standard to get work in that area.

A lot of them are very limited in what they can do. Some have motor skill problems, others are visually impaired. I have to make the stitches and then show the children how to pull the needle through the fabric. One little boy kept pricking himself on the needle. I hadn’t realised he had poor eyesight, and felt really mean when he started to cry sudjee venda (I don’t want the needle). Had to give him a balloon to make it better.

Susan and Midhun are my star pupils. Susan has Downs Syndrome and is a teacher/helper at the school. She sits with me patiently for an hour and a half each afternoon, sewing and helping to keep the other kids in order. Midhun is a lovely boy, probably around 14 years old, with long sensitive fingers. Although apparently he’s a slow learner, his stitching is incredibly neat and fast, much better than mine. He comes to me after lessons for half an hour, then everything stops for chaia (tea), and we all troop into the main hall for drinks and snacks. The chaia is made of boiled milk and served with lashings of sugar. I swear you could live on the stuff if you needed to without any food passing your lips.

While Midhun is speeding through his letters, I’m taking one pupil at a time to painstakingly go through the procedure of needle into cloth, pull it through, straighten the stitch, then start again. Meanwhile, to keep the other kids from ram raiding our sewing table, I’ve handed out hundreds of pencils and crayons, photocopies of jungle animals to colour in, and balloons if supplies permit.

Most of the teachers, by this stage, are drooping on the school steps, exhausted from a long day of teaching in the searing heat. Some of them literally fall asleep, heads down, until the call of chaia wakes them up. The more energetic ones will grab a colouring sheet and join in with the children.

Feeling a bit more energetic myself today, I joined the boys playing cricket after chaia, and surprised myself by managing to catch the ball while on fielding duty – result! Then a quick game of badminton, and ten minutes with the school’s new pudja (kitten).

This particular pudja is so small it doesn’t yet have a name. I’ve suggested they call it Joanna. It was rescued by the priest’s wife Lindsay in the school grounds, having been attacked by crows, and the fur still hasn’t grown back on its little paws. Lindsay thought it was going to die, but put it safely in a box just in case. Since then, it’s shown a strong survival instinct. It’s a tiny little thing, maybe four or five weeks old, with a feisty personality and a big purr for such a small creature. I take it out of its box every day for a cuddle – can’t resist – and today it started licking my fingers for the first time. I think I’m in love!

After a thorough hand wash (it might be cute, but it's not particularly clean!) I walked to B-GHUD for a two-hour session with a small group of students. The sky had clouded over and was now dark grey with cloud. And, at 6.30, the rain came. It was glorious! Cool, refreshing, smelling of earth and greenness. We had a spectacular thunder storm, with huge flashes of lightning clearly visible against the evening sky, and I stood outside and let myself get drenched through, enjoying the rain and the freshness and the cool breeze it brought.